Opinion Writing (3-5)
Best Practices
Opinion Development
From the beginning, children have a natural and intuitive understanding of
the importance of expressing their opinion.
Unfortunately…
Children, and adults often ignore relevant information that is inconsistent
with their own perspective, are insensitive to criticisms of their opinion, and
fail to see alternative perspectives.
Therefore…
These qualities are also evident in students’ written
opinions and arguments, which are usually shorter and
less well developed compared to narrative and expository
writing.
According to the NAEP Writing Report Card (2003), only
17% of 4th graders, 18% of 8th graders, and 31% of 12th
graders wrote opinion/argumentative essays that were
judged to be “skillful” or better.
The Missing link: Dialogue!
• Having an opinion, and arguing that opinion is an inherently
social activity involving dialogue among people who may
hold different perspectives about an issue.
• Dialogic support is essential for the development of
opinion/argumentative writing.
• Students can experience the positive motivational effects of
using writing as a communication tool through active
engagement with others in the classroom community,
engaging content area material, and considering the
viewpoints of others.
The Research!
• A study by Felton and Herko (2004) points out that
adolescents are able to engage in effective and elaborate
face-to-face argumentation activities, and that written
argument/opinion pieces are less effective when dialogic
support is absent and face-to-face interaction did not occur.
• Wagner (1999) found that the students who participated in
role-playing activities wrote opinion/argumentative letters
that were better adapted to the audience’s needs than those
receiving direct instruction.
Connect it to Text
Experts think and argue in a number of disciplines, including literary studies.
We must design instructional activities that promote the acquisition of disciplinary
knowledge and skills through content texts.
Opinion pieces should be connected to and in response to content texts across
disciplines and should promote the acquisition of disciplinary knowledge.
Teachers should provide powerful integrated writing instruction, which calls for
instruction that integrates reading, writing, speaking and listening across the K-12
curriculum.
Students must be able to interpret literature before they are able to write analytic
opinions and arguments about it.
SO…
What Makes a Good Opinion Piece?
• Opinion/Thesis Statement
• Clear and Organized Structure
• Clear Substantive Claims
• Sound Reasoning
• Relevant Evidence
• Clear Transitions
Research Based Strategies
Many young and unskilled writers are challenged to regulate
the many demands of writing an opinion/argumentative essay.
As a result, these students need EXPLICIT strategic support
and scaffolding while planning, writing, and revising their
essays.
Luckily, research shows that strategy instruction which involves
explicit and systematic teaching of the writing process has a
dramatic and positive effect on the quality of students’ writing.
(Graham & Perin, 2007)
SRSD: Self-Regulated Strategy
Development
1. Develop Background
Knowledge
6.
6. Practice
Practice it
it
2.
2. Discuss
Discuss It
It
Self-regulated
Strategy
Development
5. Support
It It
5. Support
4. Memorize It
3. Model It
Develop Background knowledge
*The teacher provides students with quality real-world
examples of opinion/argumentative writing.
*The teacher immerses students in content area text in which
they can develop enough background knowledge on the
topic.
Do video games belong in libraries?
http://sni.scholastic.com/Debates/10_21_1
http://www.cnn.com/2013/08/15/opinion/navarrettelibrary-video-games/
Discuss It!
The teacher provides time to role play and discuss with peers, and
begin forming an opinion.
The teacher introduces and discusses a Planning strategy.
STOP
Stop judgment. List reasons for both sides of the issue
Take a side and form an opinion by deciding which side has the
strongest support
Organize your ideas by numbering them in how they will appear in
your paper
Plan more as you write down your ideas
Model It!
Teacher models how the strategy works by thinking aloud through
the process and demonstrating how to use the mnemonic devices
to plan and write text. A graphic organizer such as 4-square
could also be used at this point.
Memorize it!
Teacher encourages students to memorize the mnemonic in order
to internalize the planning process. This can be done through a
game format or additional collaborative practice using the
devise and other topics.
Support it!
Teacher provides additional collaborative support through
shared writing, peer interactions, etc to reinforce the use of the
strategy with other topics.
Independent Practice!
Teacher provides students opportunities to use the strategy to
independently plan and produce opinion texts for a variety of
purposes of various lengths, and addressing several issues
based on content area material.
REPEAT!!! Discuss It!
After the planning phase is complete, the teacher introduces and
discusses a Writing strategy.
WRITE
Work from your plan to develop a thesis statement
Remember your goal
Include transition words for each paragraph
Try to use different kinds of sentences
Add Exciting and interesting words
OR
TREE
T: A clear TOPIC sentence
R: REASONS (3 or more)
E: Provide EXPLANATIONS of reasons, and
EXAMINE the reasons from the
audience’s perspective
E: Provide an ENDING
Model It! Memorize it! Support it!
Independent Performance!
Discuss It!
Following the planning and writing stages, the teacher introduces
and discusses a Revising Strategy
* Good writers revise to improve the overall quality of writing,
while novice writers revise to correct grammar, spelling, and
punctuation.
SCAN ?
S: Does it make SENSE?
C: Is is CONNECTED to my belief?
Have I CONNECTED my reasons well?
A: Can I ADD more?
N: NOTE and fix errors
Model It! Memorize it! Support it!
Independent Performance!
Important to Remember
•Knowing a topic well enough to read about it, pales in
comparison to the demands of writing.
•More extensive and better organized knowledge is
required to write it with sufficient depth.
•Therefore, students will continue to need
extensive support before they become
independent.
•BUT, research shows that reading AND writing about a
topic tends to provide a much richer learning experience.
Writing For Understanding!
Some Pig!
Writing Matters!
Writing isn’t always about life or death, but in the end,
writing is ALWAYS about meaning.
A 1st graders tribute to his mother on Mother’s day
An efficiently constructed grocery list
A fourth grade essay on how chickadees survive the
winter
A eulogy composed for a dear friend
A piece of writing has meaning for the writer – and for
the reader. Such writing can only come from
knowledge and understanding!
Writing For ALL!
The ability to make sense of information and ideas
and to express that understanding in coherent writing
is a critical skill.
Clear effective writing is really a reflection of clear
thinking
Doug Reeves 90/90/90 schools (2000)
If we are serious about raising the achievement of our
students especially the most disadvantaged, about
making sure that they are in the game, then writing in
school – frequently, clearly, tied to understanding –
MATTERS!
The Grandmother of ALL Writing
Standards!
#1 FOCUS: To be clear and effective, every piece of
writing must have a single focus
Focus makes sure that one meaning is emphasized
and once that is established, everything in the
piece of writing must support and develop that
meaning.
#2 STRUCTURE: An organization that is appropriate to
the focus
Topic – facts and details – transition/linking words
– conclusion
#3 ELABORATION: develop and support the focus in a
way that is appropriate for the piece of writing
Continued…
#4 APPROPRIATE VOICE AND TONE:
Formal, informal, silly, moving, outraged
#5 CONVENTIONS: Simply put, the conventions of
standard English matter
In it’s 2003 report, NAEP defined proficient writing as,
“able to produce an organized response…that shows
an understanding of the writing task they have been
assigned. Their writing should include details that
support and develop their main idea, and it should
show that these students are aware of the audience
that they are expected to address.
Paradigm Shifts
For too many years we have asked students to
write about what they know.
Now we are asking students to KNOW about
what they write.
As a result, this takes deliberate, intentional
planning for knowledge building.
DIRECT – EXPLICIT
TEACHING
We will fail, if we forget this step!
Before students are expected to write
independently, they have worked with the
teacher to develop a piece of writing that is
focused, clearly structured, well-developed,
and thoughtful.
Only then, and with lots of guided practice will
these skills become transferable
Central Ideas
What is it that I want students to
understand about the content?
What understandings about the craft of
writing do I want them to develop?
How will I plan my instruction to get
them there?
The Focus
What question will I pose so that
students can see how to approach this
thinking and write in a appropriate,
manageable way?
What question does the prompt pose?
How will I help them focus so that they
can see how to approach this and write
in an appropriate, manageable way?
Building and Processing Working
Knowledge
How will I make sure that students know enough
about this subject by the end to actually be able to
write about it?
What will they read, and how will I help them read it?
What working vocabulary do they need?
What experiences do they need to have?
How will I engage my students in purposeful conversations
in order to build knowledge?
How will my students analyze and capture the knowledge
in notes so that they have access to their ideas when
writing?
How will I monitor their developing understandings so that
I am sure they are getting it?
Structure
How will students know how to
construct this piece of writing so that
their thinking is clear, both to them
and to their reader?
What will I show as a model?
What tools will they need?
What concepts of craft do they need
to understand?
Writing
How will students draft and revise so
that their final writing is clearly focused,
organized, and developed to show
understanding of the central ideas?
How will I monitor their writing so that
I am sure that they are getting it?
How will I give them feedback as they
write and revise to show that
understanding?
Structure: A Well Developed
Painted Essay
Introductory Paragraph: (include the 3
overarching ideas) Blue (like the sky)
Transition Words: green (between blue and
yellow)
3-Detail Paragraphs : Yellow (shining light on
the topic)
Elaborate details in each paragraph: Red (the
meat)
Conclusion Paragraph: Shade of blue (restating
the topic and 3 details)